Thursday Briefing: Russia vows a response as Finland seeks NATO membership without delay

Thursday, May 12, 2022

by Linda Noakes

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Here's what you need to know.

Finland moves to join NATO, North Korea reports its first COVID outbreak, and Bitcoin's 2021 gains are wiped out

Today's biggest stories

Finnish soldiers take part in an exercise at the Niinisalo garrison in Kankaanpaa, Finland, May 4, 2022

RUSSIA AND UKRAINE AT WAR

Finland said it would apply to join NATO "without delay", with Sweden expected to follow suit, suggesting Russia's invasion of Ukraine will bring about the very expansion of the Western military alliance that Vladimir Putin aimed to prevent.

The decision by the two Nordic countries to abandon the neutrality they maintained throughout the Cold War would be one of the biggest shifts in European security in decades. Finland's announcement drew fury from the Kremlin, which called it a direct threat to Russia and threatened an unspecified response.

Here's what you need to know about Finland and Sweden's path to NATO membership.

Moscow has imposed sanctions on the owner of the Polish part of the Yamal pipeline that carries Russian gas to Europe, as well as the former German unit of the Russian gas producer Gazprom, whose subsidiaries service Europe's gas consumption.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, doctors at a military hospital in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia have stayed on the job for days at a time as waves of casualties are rushed to them for treatment from nearby frontline areas.

Here's what you need to know about the Russia-Ukraine conflict right now

Smoke casts an orange haze as firefighters hold a briefing in the Black Lake, New Mexico area north of the Calf Canyon Hermits Peak wildfire, May 11, 2022.


U.S.

As America's weather gets wilder, its power network gets older. Reuters investigates how the grid, plagued by outages and increasingly severe weather, needs a trillion-dollar overhaul to handle the Biden administration’s promised clean-energy revolution.

The United States has now recorded more than 1 million COVID deaths, according to a Reuters tally, crossing a once-unthinkable milestone about two years after the first cases upended everyday life and quickly transformed it.

Legislation to make abortion legal throughout the United States was defeated in the Senate, amid solid Republican opposition. The Justice Department said that it was stepping up security for members of the Supreme Court ahead of an anticipated ruling that could scale back abortion rights.

A U.S. government investigation into the dark history of Native American boarding schools has found "marked or unmarked burial sites" at 53 of them, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said.

Firefighters in northern New Mexico labored under an apocalyptic orange sky, and vehicles streamed out of the ski area of Angel Fire as wind-driven flames from the state's second-largest blaze on record roared closer to the mountain resort.

WORLD

North Korea reported its first COVID-19 outbreak, calling it the "gravest national emergency" and ordering a national lockdown, with state media saying an Omicron variant had been detected in the capital, Pyongyang.

European Union leaders said that the EU wants to become a bigger actor in Asia, which they termed a "theater of tensions", warning of an increasingly assertive China even as they called on Beijing to defend the multilateral global order.

Sri Lankans thronged buses in the main city Colombo to return to their hometowns during a brief relaxation in curfew, imposed after the prime minister quit and went into hiding and President Gotabaya Rajapaksa warned of anarchy. Sri Lanka's ruling family is in a fight for survival as the crisis worsens.

Australia's mighty #MeToo wave is piling pressure on mining and political leaders who are preparing to face a reckoning over sexual harassment scandals stretching from the arid Outback to Parliament House.

British police said they had now made more than 100 referrals for fines as part of their investigation into lockdown rule-breaking at gatherings held in Downing Street during the COVID pandemic.



Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, May 11, 2022

BUSINESS


Shares sank to a 1-1/2 year low and the dollar hit its highest in two decades, as fears grew that fast-rising inflation will drive a sharp rise in interest rates that brings the global economy to a standstill.

Japan's SoftBank reported a record $26.2 billion loss at its Vision Fund investment arm, as rising interest rates and political instability have whiplashed high-growth tech stocks.

Cryptocurrencies extended their sell-off, with Bitcoin falling to its lowest levels in 16 months as a stampede out of so-called stablecoins sent shockwaves around broader markets.

The world will not be left short of oil even with lower output from sanctions-hit Russia, the International Energy Agency said, in a U-turn after it predicted a possible "global supply shock" in March.

Britain's economy unexpectedly shrank 0.1% in March after a slump in car sales due to supply-chain problems, marking a weak end to the first quarter of a year when the risk of recession is looming.

Quote of the day

"This deal is the first of its kind in the world. Riders for one of the world's largest online food delivery services will now be covered by a collective agreement that gives them a voice."

Mick Rix

GMB National Officer

Deliveroo's UK riders win collective bargaining rights under union deal

Video of the day

Jordanian craftsman makes swords out of car parts

Motaz al Mazari keeps his family’s craft alive, adding his own twist.

And finally…

Google unveils new 10-shade skin tone scale to test AI for bias

The company partnered with Harvard University sociologist Ellis Monk, who studies colorism and had felt dehumanized by cameras that failed to detect his face and reflect his skin tone.

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